Anti-Abortion Efforts in the post-Dobbs Era: Crisis Pregnancy Centers and Reproductive Governance in Texas and California

• In Event: Reproductive Governance After Dobbs: Rights, Borders, and Criminalization

Abstract

Crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) are nonprofit organizations that aim to deter pregnant women from choosing abortion and instead encourage parenting. They are a key part of the anti-abortion movement, particularly in the post-Dobbs era as abortion access is left to the states. In this paper, I report on my ethnographic research and 50 in-depth interviews at CPCs in Texas and California, focusing on how workers frame the issue of abortion under starkly different terms. Preliminary analyses suggest that the California clinic workers, who are unregulated by the state in terms of what they say to clients, tell women that abortion results in spiritual damnation, often relying on religious doctrine—not medical misinformation—to make their case. On the other hand, Texas workers focus on legal criminalization and act as enforcers of the abortion ban, ensuring they counsel within the guardrails of state policy. This research show how the contemporary anti-abortion movement is sensitive to differences in state policy and funding. My work pushes forward the fields of feminist and reproductive politics.

Author

• Carly Danielle Young, The University of Texas at Austin